2024 Superior Spring Trail Race Recap

Photo Credit Mike Wheeler

The Superior 100 Mile Trail Race was established on the Superior Hiking Trail in the fall of 1991, it is the 10th oldest 100 mile trail race in the country. This fall we will host the 34th annual. Later, the 50 miler and marathon were added to the Fall lineup. In 2003 the ‘Spring Race‘ was created to complement the ‘Fall Race‘, providing an early season training opportunity on the trail, and ultimately serving as its own, stand-alone, fully-realized spring race. With the introduction of the the Spring Race and it’s 25K, a sub-ultra and sub-marathon distance was now available as part of the Superior Trail Races. In 2018 the addition of the 12.5K made the Spring event even more welcoming for those interested in running and racing Superior, but not wanting to tackle the marathon or an ultra-distance. As a result we see more teens, older runners, families and walkers participating. What a great addition it has been. Of the five other race distances that comprise the Spring and Fall races, it is the only distance that ventures North of Lutsen, and it includes one of my absolute favorite sections of trail – one of my earliest backpacking trips was on that section, circa 1995. Those of you that are familiar with this section of trail may also have noticed how it has improved over the last number of years. The Superior Trail Race has worked hard with the Superior Hiking Trail Association scouting, planning and hauling in materials for all of the new boardwalk and reroutes. Volunteers from the race also have the pleasure of clearing that section of trail of downed trees and brush each spring prior to the race.

Founded in 2003 this was the 22nd annual Superior Spring Trail Race. After a couple of heavy winters, the winter of 2023-2024 was about as light as they come, the North Shore seeing very little snow. It was setting up to be a very dry Spring, and thankfully for the sake of water levels and fire danger, April and May brought a healthy dose of rain. Even with the rain we had, trails were plenty dry the week leading into the race, but overnight rain Friday into Saturday morning changed that. While we always prefer to race on dry trails, we cannot control the weather. Thankfully the rain abated late-morning and we finished the day with warm sun and strong breezes. On Saturday morning runners from 2 countries, 24 states and 203 Minnesota cities checked in for the awesome tradition that is the Superior Spring Trail Race. While we do get plenty of participants from nearby communities like Two Harbors, Silver Bay and Grand Marais, a feature of the Superior Trail Races is that they are a destination for most of our runners. As such, we see a lot of friend and family groups traveling and participating together. I know of several groups that use the Superior Spring Trail Race as an annual reunion; college friends, co-workers, family groups, and more. There are several families with three generations running – what a blessing.

Even with slower than normal conditions the winners in the 50K came in just under 4.5 hours, 25K winners around 2 hours and 12K winners in an hour – more or less, typical. A couple of the competitive performances that stood out to me were Alli Hamholm placing 2nd in the 50K in her debut ultra and 13 year old Soren Miller placing 3rd in the 12K, in just over an hour. As I think most everyone that participates in our races is aware, our focus, (care, and attention), is split equally between the front of the pack and back of the pack. A slower than average year is typically tougher for the back of the pack than it is for the front, and we saw a few more runners missing the cutoff at Sawbill and Oberg than usual. I am taking this as a reminder, or an education for those newer to our sport. The cutoffs for the the Superior Spring Trail Race (all of our events actually) are generous, and quite generous as compared to most equivalent races nationally. We are big believers in these generous cutoffs as it allows a greater number of people to participate in, and finish our races. That said, these are hard cutoffs and they don’t change based on conditions. It is a safety issue, the races must operate on a schedule, and runners and volunteers can only safely be out there for so long – once runners are cut, they may not continue on the trail.

And about that new hill at the end… Our friends and neighbors at Lutsen Mountain open their gondola and alpine slide the same weekend as the Spring race each season. The past few years have seen increased interest in those attractions. Lutsen Mountain approached us a couple of weeks ago and asked if we would be willing to try adjusting the final mile of the race, so that runners would not be on the paved portion of Ski Hill Road in the late morning and afternoon. Instead, the race would run on the east side of Ski Hill Road and on the lower slopes of Lutsen Mountain – making its way to ‘Bridge Run’ to return to our race finish / race host, Caribou Highlands Lodge. Typically, if you can keep runners from being on open roads, that is a win, so we agreed to give it a try. It took a little longer than expected for the final route, and plan, (and paperwork), to come together. So, while we knew the week of the race that we would not be on the road, and that that final climb would be added, it was not worth muddying the waters a day or two before the race with a specific communication about it. We marked it on Friday and told you about it on race morning – apparently a few of you thought we were kidding, we don’t kid about hills 😉 While that last climb is a bit of a grind, you are rewarded with that awesome view of Moose Mountain – what a way to end it. We will be debriefing with our friends at Lutsen Mountain in the coming weeks and will make a decision over the summer if we will be using the same / similar route for the fall race, and again next spring.

There will be dry years, wet years, cold years and warm years. The thing that remains constant is the ability of these events to bring people together, create connections and fortify the human spirit. Thank you for being with us. We hope to see you again next year; running, spectating or volunteering.

Photo Credit Cary Johnson

Photo Credit Scott Rokis

Volunteers:
I strongly encourage you to take the time to read the volunteer recap / thank you HERE https://www.superiorspringtrailrace.com/2024-volunteer-thank-you/. If you would like to see what it takes to staff Superior and all the time that your fellow runners/volunteers give, see THIS https://www.superiorspringtrailrace.com/volunteer-assignments/ A large percentage of the trail running community routinely volunteers. If you have not yet, give yourself the gift of doing as much… with RSR (Afton and Superior Fall are coming up) or at another non-RSR race. I will be volunteering at Twin Cities Marathon and Hixon this Fall. We all make this go.

Kind Words:
After each race we receive dozens of kind emails / testimonials / runners experiences and I always like to share at least one…

Thank you for putting on another memorable race. My husband and good friend got to experience Superior for the first time. They ran the 12.5k and I ran the 25k. The SHT is relentless and the conditions made it even more challenging. I was so relieved when I crossed the finish line and saw them smiling. They LOVED it! They are hooked! The trail community is so encouraging and inspiring! I’m thankful I got to share it with those I love. Thanks for all your, Cheri’s, and the volunteers hard work and dedication.

Photo Credit Cary Johnson

Photo Credit Cary Johnson

Photos:
Most of our incredible volunteer photographers have submitted their photos from the race. Not only do these photographers work hard at the race to get these shots, they work hard in the days following, doing all of the post-processing, organizing, and publishing of their photos. Please keep in mind that some of our photographers sell their photos, some make low res images available for free and sell the high res versions, some will accept tips and some give away the high res images for free. Please look for notes / prompts for each photographer / gallery. All of them put a ton of time into it and have a pile of expensive gear that makes this possible. As always it is good form to credit (by name) and thank photographers for the photos you are sharing on your social media or elsewhere. If you want to use photos for commercial purposes please contact the photographers directly or contact me if you are unable to find their contact information. If you are a photographer or aspiring photographer and you would like to come shoot some time, please contact us, we would love to have you. All of this years and past years galleries can be found HEREhttps://www.superiorspringtrailrace.com/photos/ some of our favorite photos from this year’s race can be found HERE https://www.superiorspringtrailrace.com/photos-2024-highlights/

Results and Stats:
Race results are available via THIS link https://www.athlinks.com/event/44440/results/Event/1077116/Results Once we are confident that everyone has had a chance to review the race results and no further revisions are needed, we will upload results to our proprietary results pages on the Superior website, to UltraSignup, and to UTMB so qualifying points can be awarded. If your result is missing, or you see anything off with the results, please let us know right away – we will have more information about your time/result in one of the backup timing systems that we run.

2024	Registered	Started	Start %	DNS	DNS %	DNFd	DNF %	Finished	Finsh %
50K	297	232	78%	65	22%	17	7%	215	93%
25K	358	298	83%	60	17%	7	2%	291	98%
12.5K	336	275	82%	61	18%	0	0%	275	100%
Total	991	805	81%	186	19%	24	3%	781	97%

Sweatshirts, T-Shirts, Hats and More for Sale:
Most of the same offerings we have on race day, along with extras of this years race hat, are available on our online store HERE https://www.rocksteadyrunning.com/shop/ – you can use the “filters” on the side of the page to sort and search for specific items.

Wood Print Course Map and Elevation Charts:
Beyond the pre-orders we took for in-person pickup at Superior, we were able to produce some extras. Maps, Elevation Charts, and RSR Logo prints are available on our website.

Sponsors:
Please be sure to check out our awesome sponsors and Partners. We have real relationships with all of these businesses / organizations and most of the owners and/or employees are personal friends, they volunteer, run the races and are part of our local running community.

Superior Hiking Trail
Caribou Highlands
Visit Cook County
Mill City / Saint City Running
Vaniply / Vanicream
Fika Coffee
Bell Bank Mortgage – Jerry Schmidt
JerCo Construction
Trail Transformation
Northwoods Running
Performance Running Gym
Consilience Coaching
Bridge Realty – Bill Pomerenke
LutZen Massage Studios
Captain Ken’s Chili
Full Sun Services
Mile in My Shoes
St. Croix Law
Critical Connections Ecological Services
Relentless Courage – Jon Howard

Support the Superior Hiking Trail:
A large percentage of you are already Superior Hiking Trail Association members. Many of you who are not, indicated at the time you registered, that you would like to be. Now is a great time to show our support en masse that we, as trail runners, support the trail that we love to run! You can join, or make an extra donation to the SHT via the following (custom for Superior Trail Race) links… https://superiorhiking.org/joinsuperior/ and https://superiorhiking.org/donatesuperior/ – The Superior Trail Race will continue its charitable legacy to the Superior Hiking Trail Association with a donation at the end of the trail season / after the Fall race, in addition to ongoing volunteer efforts on the trail itself; building, clearing, maintaining and improving.

Photo Credit Kevin Langton

Lodging Survey:
Our friends at Visit Cook County / Cook County Tourism are huge supporters of the Superior Trail Races. Please help us support them as they are looking for lodging data to help them better serve trail runners on both Superior Trail Race event weekends and throughout the year. Please take a moment to answer the brief three question survey HERE https://forms.gle/CDzcJheofZZ2o14i9

Next Year:
The Superior Spring Trail Race is always held the weekend before Memorial Day weekend, so that will be Saturday May 17, 2025 (pending the approval of our permit applications). The 15 day lottery registration period typically opens on January 1. The website will be updated with complete 2024 registration and event details by late fall / early winter 2024, stay tuned.

In Closing:
I have said a lot here, so simply, thank you. Thank you for being awesome individuals and an awesome community. Thank you for putting your trust in Cheri and I, our core team and our volunteers. Thank you for allowing us the opportunity to serve. As always, if you need anything, please reach out.

Gratefully,

John Storkamp
Race Director
Superior Trail Race

Photo Credit Scott Rokis